Naruto Fanfiction Collection
by Klayter McCabe
Summary: A compilation of every Naruto fic I ever wrote, in chronological order. There's slash and het here, and a lot of different characters. It will take me awhile to put each story back up. Thanks, guys.
1. Introduction

**An Awkward Introduction**

So between 2005 and 2006 I wrote _Naruto_ fanfiction. A lot of it. Since that time I've sold enough original fiction to start getting paranoid that someone on the internet would someday read one of my stories, then read one of my fics, and go "hey that's totally the same person," and then every "real" writer I know would laugh at me and kick me out of the Real Writers Club because I used to write stories about anime characters.

That fear is ridiculous.

But I pulled all my fic anyway, and tried to erase it from the internet. I failed. What's more, people noticed what I was doing. I got a lot of really nice e-mails from a lot of really nice people who still liked my _Naruto_ stories, and wanted copies of their own to keep. And then I thought about how bummed out I get when I try to re-visit a favorite fic, only to realize it has disappeared from the net. So, fuck it, here are all my _Naruto_ stories back. I'll never be famous enough to have to worry about being "outed," and anyway fandom was my family long before SFWA stepped into the picture.

Besides, I started writing fic again in 2011, albeit in different (but equally silly) fandoms.

You just can't keep a geek from geeking out.

-Klay


	2. Background Music

**Background Music**

_Klayter McCabe_

000

Shikamaru is annoyed that Asuma's cigarette is always there, hanging out of the corner of his mouth.

He is annoyed by Ino's constant, stupid enthusiasm, and her lack of ability to back up her threats and shouts.

He is even annoyed by Chouji's constant munching and snacking and chewing and crunching and lip-smacking.

Sometimes, when he can bring up enough emotion to care at all, he hates his team.

So he's smarter than most everyone. So what? So he can beat his opponents if he has time to think, and the resources to draw on. But his mind is limited by his body, ten thousand plots and strategies that he is incapable of carrying out because he lacks the speed and strength and power.

All of Ino's fire and passion and enthusiasm and downright idiocy wasted, because she was not born into a clan like Uchiha or Hyuuga and doesn't stand a chance against anyone who was.

All of Chouji's smiles and quiet comments and the strange things he sometimes whispers in Shikamaru's ear will someday be gone, because Chouji thinks he is a ninja, and he will pay for that dream with his life.

Shikamaru is angry because Asuma is a first-rate fighter, but a third-rate shougi player and a second-rate teacher, and all four of them know it. Why waste talented instructors on middle-of-the-road genin? Team ten is currently average, but Shikamaru knows that they will soon be left behind. Prodigies like Sasuke and Neji, the dead-fucking determined like Lee, even an idiot like Naruto who runs on will alone – they all have a capacity for improvement that his team lacks.

Team ten is nothing but background music, one-trick ponies, average genin who will eventually make less-than-average chuunin who will die doing some shit mission that falls to them because all the important shinobi are busy.

Shikamaru doesn't want to die in the dirt someday, because he's running on caffeine pills and no sleep and makes one stupid mistake. Worse still, he doesn't want it to be Ino or Chouji limp on the ground, because they trust his strategies and do what he says.

He wants to lay in the grass and watch the clouds, wants Chouji to give up training and instead get a part-time job at a yakiniku place where he can eat for free, wants Ino to forget her stupid competition with Sakura over Sasuke-who-will-never-care. They could have lives, couldn't they? Normal, average lives where no one expects them to be ninja, expects them to be tools.

But even with his goddamn super-genius IQ, Shikamaru can't see a way for that to work. None of them were born into Konoha's best shinobi clans, but they _were_ born in Konoha, and all of their families have a history of serving. Family history and family future seem to be more or less the same thing, so Shikamaru does what a Nara should, and that is fight. Even if they walked out now, if all three of them just left – well, everyone knows what happens to missing-nin. Maybe Neji is right in his quiet, bitter mutterings about fate and the way of the world. Maybe the board was set a long time ago, and they're just playing out their roles, waiting for whatever happens next.

It won't be glorious.

Shikamaru knows that his role of knowing is never glorious, that Chouji's Meat Tank isn't something that anybody will ever write ballads about, that Ino will just fade as the hundredth kunoichi infatuated with Uchiha fucking Sasuke. They're just mediocre shinobi in a village that raises heroes.

Sometimes Shikamaru is so sick of being a loser.

Why bother?

000

End "Background Music"

000

_March 28, 2005_


	3. Or Progress

**Or Progress**

_Klayter McCabe_

000

If Kakashi allowed himself the luxury of worry, he would worry about the members of his team. All three of them have very different problems: Sakura is weak. Naruto is stupid. Sasuke is a tool.

They have very different goals: Sakura wants Sasuke, Naruto wants friendship and respect, and Sasuke wants to kill people. Very specific people. Fortunately, for shinobi, these are more or less acceptable goals. Naruto and Sakura's are weak, but only because they are young. Sakura's crush could yet grow into an obsession nasty enough to be worthy of a ninja, and Naruto's rambling about becoming Hokage-which really just means that someday he expects the entire _village_ to be his friend-carries a hint of greatness.

Sometimes, Kakashi's genin make him smile.

Mostly, they make him want to beat his head into a wall. When the urge gets too strong, there's always _Icha Icha Paradise_. The expressions on his students' faces when he ignores them to read erotica mean that they must be getting a vague idea about how he feels towards life most of the time. It's ridiculous, insulting, and rather porny.

Well, not as porny as he'd like.

If Kakashi allowed himself the luxury of worry, he would worry about the members of his team. They're his first genin students, and he doesn't know what the hell he's doing. Mentally he compares himself to the Yondaime, and he always comes up wanting. Kakashi wants to mold team seven into perfect soldiers, as if he could make them strong enough to not feel pain.

Well.

That's a stupid goal, isn't it?

Neither he nor the Yondaime could protect Obito, and inevitably he'll fail to protect this team in turn. When he does fail, will they be able to handle themselves?

Probably not. Sakura will be weak, Naruto will be stupid, and Sasuke... Well, Sasuke has so far based his life entirely around what other people expect him to become, so it will depend on the situation, won't it?

Kakashi remembers Itachi. He was a quiet man (because you can't ever really call someone like that a boy), a cold man, a very focused man. Very bound into the labyrinth politics of his clan. Kakashi was just as surprised as the next man to hear that the entire Uchiha clan had been wiped out.

It was Sasuke's survival of the incident that unnerved Kakashi. The Uchiha had been a very... _thorough_ people. Itachi more than most. And now Sasuke follows the path laid out for him and doesn't even realize that he's only acting out his role. First for his brother, now for Orochimaru, maybe just for anyone who wants to play.

Sometimes, even more than Naruto, Sasuke is stupid.

Naruto.

Well.

Who would've thought that the Kyuubi, a murderous, marauding beast, would be bound inside such an idiot ball of sunshine?

But Naruto _had_ to be an idiot ball of sunshine, or there would have been no balance. What if Kyuubi had been bound up in someone like Sasuke, for instance? The hunter-nin would certainly be busy.

Did the Yondaime know how strong Naruto's soul was when he bound the Kyuubi to it, or did Naruto just grow that way out of necessity?

Sometimes, when Naruto has a rare silent moment, he _looks_ like the Yondaime.

If Kakashi allowed himself the luxury of worry, he would worry about the members of his team. They're _part_ of something. He can feel it. The way that the Yondaime was always where he needed to be, the way that Jiraiya feels more _connected_ to the world than most, the way that Orochimaru hummed with sinister power as he stood just outside Kakashi's circle of candles, looming over Sasuke and laughing.

It's in Sakura too, and that somehow surprises him. Naruto and Sasuke are _different_. Sakura is just a girl. A normal kunoichi. He keeps waiting for Naruto and Sasuke to surpass her entirely.

They have, in power. But not control.

Sakura holds their red threads, which bind them to her, to him, to each other, to the _something_ that they're destined for. Because it would be hard to miss. Jiraiya carting Naruto around like a pet, then teaching him something as powerful as Rasengen. Sasuke with his head bowed, the seal standing out in stark relief against his paper pale skin.

Two out of three. How long will Sakura have to wait for her member of the legendary Sannin?

Does history always repeat itself?

Kakashi worries about his team.

000

End "Or Progress"

000

_May 11, 2005_


	4. Wedding Colored

**Wedding-Colored**

_Klayter McCabe_

000

When Sakura was a little girl, she dreamed of crystals and diamonds and the color white. She and Ino sat and giggled together, and Ino brought flowers from her parents' store that weren't fresh enough to sell, but were still beautiful enough for two little girls. Tucked away in the fields just inside the walls of Konoha, they lay in the tall grass under the sun and tossed their fantasies back and forth.

Young kunoichi start out with very different ideas about the lives of shinobi than boys do.

Ino's dreams, Sakura remembers, never faltered. They were always strong and true and full of Ino being faster than everyone else, her kunai hitting the target first, full of post-battle ceremonies in which the Hokage showered her with honor.

Sakura's dreams were different.

If thoughts about the blood of her enemies crossed Ino's mind, they never did Sakura's. She looks back on it now and wonders how she could possibly have imagined her life as a shinobi and managed to leave out all the death. Her fantasies were formless, and usually rode on the tail of Ino's fervent dreams.

This changed at age seven, when, chasing Ino through the woods and trying not to lose her faster friend, Sakura stumbled on a boy she didn't know.

She saw him first and hit the forest floor, using all her meager shinobi skills so that she'd be able to jump out and scare him, but he was too busy focusing to notice her presence.

He was throwing shuriken.

Sakura hadn't gotten to try that very much yet (her mother didn't like it when she brought home Ino's weaponry for practice), but even she could tell that he wasn't that great. He was short – maybe shorter than she was – and pale, with dark hair that made him look even whiter when the sunlight came in through the leaves and gleamed off his skin. He was sweating.

Sakura watched him throw, watched his face as he grew increasingly frustrated. She had to resist the urge to walk out and correct his form. She'd spent enough time watching Ino, after all, to know you didn't flick your wrist like that.

Then the boy threw a shuriken down near his feet and made a stupid noise that was half-yell, half-growl, half-whine.

Sakura's breath caught in her throat.

Then Ino was at her elbow, whispering, "Why'd you stop chasing me?" and Sakura only shrugged. Ino tilted her head and followed Sakura's gaze.

"Who's he?" she whispered.

"I dunno," murmured Sakura, wracking her brain for some glimpse of him from anywhere before. "Maybe he's in Yamada-sensei's class."

"Oh." They fell silent. The boy looked as though he was about to cry, and every tendon in Sakura's body pulled with the desire to let him know that he was not alone.

Then _someone_ was behind them, was just _there_, and Sakura was too terrified to think straight, because that chakra wasn't the kind that belonged in Konoha. She felt Ino freeze beside her, and it was the first time in her life she thought she knew what dying was going to be like.

Then the person stepped around them with quiet footsteps, as though he was walking across the forest floor without stepping on any of the dead leaves.

"Sasuke," the man said quietly, and the boy turned around, scrubbing furiously at his eyes with the back of his sleeve.

"Aniki!"

And if every hair on Sakura's arms hadn't been standing straight up, she would have recognized that tone of voice. She'd given up, she'd made that ugly noise, she'd worn that same expression every time she lost to Ino and watched Ino try not to look disappointed.

She _knew_ this boy.

The man said something else, but Ino was tugging on Sakura's sleeve, and she let her best friend pull her away.

"Who _was_ that?" she asked.

"_That_," said Ino, proud to have the knowledge, "was Uchiha _Itachi_. My dad says that when he grows up, he's probably going to be our new Hokage."

Sakura licked her lips. "I don't want him as Hokage."

Ino shrugged and tried to look tough, then let it slip. "I don't either. He's too scary. I like Sandaime best."

"Yeah." Sakura nodded. "So who do you think the boy was?"

"Just his little brother. Sasuke? I think he said Sasuke."

"Sasuke," Sakura repeated. And starting there, her shinobi dreams began to change.

000

The next year, Uchiha Sasuke was put in Sakura's class, and this marked the first time in her life that someone besides Ino came first in her thoughts.

Sasuke didn't talk very much, but sometimes if she said "good morning" when they were the first people to class, he smiled back at her. He never played boys-chase-the-girls at recess, so Sakura stopped playing too.

Ino, who played girls-chase-the-boys and called flying tackles "kisses," gave Sakura the silent treatment for a week when she announced that she had better things to do at recess.

Sakura noticed, gradually, that she wasn't the only person who watched Sasuke. The Uzumaki boy did, too, when he wasn't busy pulling stupid pranks with that boy from the dog clan, or sleeping during tests with Shikamaru-kun.

Then, in the middle of that year, there was the Uchiha Clan Massacre, and Sasuke was absent from school for a month and a half. Sakura tried to find out where he lived, but the entire Uchiha district was closed down, and Sasuke was hidden in case his brother came back to finish the job. There were long memorial services for all the dead, and it didn't seem quite real to Sakura, because the only one of them she'd known was Sasuke, and it couldn't be that just one man had killed all those people.

Then she remembered what it was like in the woods when all Uchiha Itachi had to do was walk up behind her and she'd thought she was going to die.

She was glad that he wasn't going to be Hokage.

When Sasuke came back to school, she thought at first that he was a clone decoy and the real Sasuke was still tucked away somewhere, because the boy in Iruka-sensei's class wasn't a real boy.

When she said good morning, he didn't even seem to realize she was there.

For the next few years she only saw him laugh or smile once, and that was at Naruto. It wasn't a nice laugh, but, with one failed henge, Naruto had produced more emotion from Sasuke than she had in months of trying.

In her sleep, her shinobi dreams finally began to take shape, and they were not pleasant.

Sometimes there was a man who at one point might have been Itachi, but who had grown to be everything bad in everyone, and in Sakura's dreams, he sometimes killed every person in Konoha.

Sometimes he wore Sasuke's laugh, the cold one directed at Naruto.

Sometimes Naruto was there, stupid scar-cheeked Naruto from class, and he watched her and tried to make her laugh and opened his mouth to ask her on dates but couldn't ever find the words.

Sometimes Naruto had red eyes, and she didn't know why.

Mostly, in her dreams, there was Sasuke. She had fantasies about protecting him on the battlefield, and then drawing him out and making him flesh again. One of her favorite daydreams was of the two of them in a small kitchen with a great big window facing the sunset, and she could make out only Sasuke's silhouette. She handed him a bowl of rice, and he said "thank you" and then they ate in silence.

She thinks now that, for a ninja, that kind of daydream showed an impressive lack of ambition.

Ino would have laughed: the kind of laugh that Sasuke used on Naruto.

And somewhere, in the end, mixing up Ino and herself and Sasuke and Naruto and who was who and when, she finally got the picture. It wasn't until after Sasuke and Naruto were made her teammates, when she saw a side of Sasuke that would never be domesticated enough to serve dinner to, and a side of Naruto that was as bright and strong and true as any Hokage could ever hope to be. It wasn't until after she fought Ino, _finally_ fought Ino, and held her own.

With a terrible twist in her gut, Sakura realized that Sasuke wasn't hers.

She was closer to him, she knew, than almost anyone in Konoha. But even with her only competition being Naruto and Kakashi-sensei, she didn't stand a chance. When Sasuke looked at Sakura, he usually saw her standing there, and that was more than he gave most people. But he didn't always. There were too many times she'd offered him smiles only to have him see right through her, looking for something past the line where the trees met the sky.

Naruto, Sasuke always saw.

Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke always saw.

And those times when he pretended not to see Kakashi-sensei or Naruto, neither of them stood for it. Sakura fell silent and dropped her head and allowed herself to stay invisible, but Kakashi-sensei had more than once thrown _Icha Icha Paradise_ at Sasuke's head to get his attention, and Naruto had no problem yelling and punching and making a complete ass of himself just so Sasuke would look up and call him stupid.

Sasuke wasn't hers. Not ever. And now that he's gone, she has her final proof.

Sasuke thanked her, before he left. For just a moment when he saw her standing there, he looked surprised, and like something hurt him. And then he killed it, because killing things is what Sasuke does. He thanked her, knocked her out, and laid her unconscious on a park bench and kept walking.

Naruto was also left unconscious in his wake, but Naruto has the scars to show for it. Naruto could point to any number of the marks on his body and say, "this is where Sasuke saw me, and this is where Sasuke saw me, and this is where Sasuke saw me, and this is where he was kinda pissed about it."

Sakura has no such marks. Is it stupid for her to be so jealous of someone else's scars?

Sakura has no doubt that wherever he is right now, Sasuke bears Naruto's marks, too. If he were so inclined, Sasuke would be able to take off his shirt and point and say, "this is where the moron got lucky, and this is where I was a little bit too slow, and this is where he cheated with fox claws, and this one here barely even counts."

Naruto left his marks with fists and kicks and – knowing Naruto – probably teeth. Orochimaru left his mark in swishes of black that stand out almost... almost pretty, against Sasuke's paper white skin. Uchiha Itachi left his marks everywhere, in Sasuke's eyes and head and even the way he carries himself when walking. Sakura doesn't know what marks Kakashi-sensei left, or where, but she has no doubt that they're there.

And that leaves only her, really. Her and all the rest of Konoha, who saw Sasuke and the something in him, but were not seen back. Sakura left no mark on Sasuke, not that she can see.

She closes her eyes against the shattering of her crystal wedding-colored dreams and tries not to feel bitter.

000

End "Wedding-Colored"

000

_October 12, 2005_


End file.
